Every year, I try to keep my tomatoes up off of the ground by installing a trellis system in advance of the tomatoes needing to be trellised. My usual system is the "post and twine" system in which 2 inch posts are pounded into the ground using a stake pounder at 10 foot intervals and then wrapping/weaving the twine around the poles at 10 inch vertical intervals. It works pretty well and I am not unhappy with it. However, the downside is that the cotton jute that I prefer to use because it is compostable stretches, sags and becomes brittle as you go through the summer. The plastic twine that most "growers" use works better but it has to be disposed of in the landfill since it isn't recyclable or compostable. This year, as an...

Is it really fall? It is going to be 101F today but yet, the nights are cooling off and that makes all the difference in the fall garden. I went to a nursery to purchase some transplants and they said..."we don't have them in yet because it is still too hot". I wanted to say nonsense! It is almost too late for planting broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and the other cole crops for much of California. The reality is, if you wait until it really cools off, your plants will just sit there for the rest of the winter doing nothing and you will have very small heads to harvest in early spring. So get going and get your planting done. Vegies you can plant now in the interior valleys include: beets,...